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In English

Caving in Finland

Finland is hardly a country known for its caves.

Unisvuoren Susiluola, Nousiainen. (C) Jan Nyström, 2014

The bedrock is mostly granite, so there are no major karst regions suitable for cave formation. A handful of limestone caves do exist, but they are small – the longest accessible limestone cave, Torhola (near Lohja), is only 83 meters long. In addition, there are many boulder caves and tectonic caves, over one thousand in total, although these tend to be pretty small as well.

A cave where you can fit two or three people comfortably is fairly sizeable by Finnish caving standards.

Finnish caves can typically be visited with a minimal amount of equipment: helmet, head torch, and durable clothes are typically sufficient. It is not unusual to spend more time looking for the cave than actually exploring it.

Suomen luolaseura / Finlands grottförening / Finnish Caving Society

Finnish Caving Society, founded in 2010, is the one and only Finnish club focusing primarily on dry caves (for cave divers, there is the Finnish Cave Diving Association).

The aim of the club is to promote cave-related activities and to increase public knowledge of caves and caving. The club has around 60 members, including both people who mainly visit, explore and catalogue Finnish caves and those who spend their vacations travelling abroad to larger cave systems.

The society organizes trips to both Finnish and foreign caves, offers training courses, provides online information on Finnish caves and caving, acts as a liaison between Finnish cavers and foreign clubs, and represents Finland in the European Speleological Federation.